Cemetery Tour

New Orleans is a city of dichotomies, perhaps best represented in its traditional Catholic heritage and a subculture of voodoo. Voodoo is a religion brought to New Orleans from West Africa and influenced by refugees from Saint Domingue, today known as Haiti. Our guide will explain the history behind the melding of African and Haitian Voodoo and how this came to gel with Roman Catholicism in New Orleans, along with touring past sites of Voodoo worship.

Your group will be escorted into one of New Orleans’ cemeteries, or “Cities of the Dead.” Because of the climate and soil conditions, New Orleanians have traditionally had to bury their dead above ground since the founding of the city in the 18th century. Marie Laveau, the voodoo priestess, is buried in St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, and her grave is still visited by many voodoo practitioners.

Guests will receive a gris gris bag from “Marie Laveau,” as she explains the beliefs and tales of New Orleans Voodoo. Your personal gris gris bag is voodoo medicine that may create for good luck, increased business, love, fertility, or your choice of healing need, all within the frame of a Real Creole Voodoo Ritual!